pins and needles

[hh445f]

I suffer badly from pins and needles in the hands after about the first 15-20km's on a ride. It is mainly in the little, ring and middle fingers at first and then it spreads to the whole hand and persists for the rest of the ride. Every so often I have to give the hand a good shake so I can feel the brake levers. It seems to happen on my MTB and my roadie, so it is not bike specific. Any remedies or thoughts Anyone.

[Mulger bill]

Setup isn't right, you've got too much weight on your hands. Can you raise the bars a little as your first experiment in solving this?

[flammer]

... or lower the saddle.

Move around more. Stand to pedal about 20% of the time.

[Parrott]

You can also try moving the saddle back on the rails a bit.

[wombatK]

You can also try moving the saddle back on the rails a bit.

+1. You need to get more of your weight onto the back of the bike. To check you've not got too much weight on your hands, put your bike in a trainer (with front wheel as level with back as normally), and see if you can pedal hard with your hands about 1 cm above the handlebar (i.e. without falling forward onto the bars).

Cheers

[twizzle]

Most likely handlebar palsy (ulnar neuropathy) caused by the ulnar nerve being trapped at the elbow or irritated by vibration - the numbness starting from the little fingers is clear sign in this case.

- Too much weight on the hands. Fix as per WombatK.
- Rough roads. Gel padding, different gloves.
- Don't ride with straight arms.
- Don't grip the bars/shifters so hard. You should be riding with relaxed hands.

[hh445f]

Hi guys, thanks for the comments so far. Went out for a ride this arvo. After about the first 15km's, same thing, so I pulled into the shop where I purchased the bike and asked what they thought. He said what all of you have said here, that the I should raise the bars and take weight of my hands. So while I waited he turned the stem over in order to lift the bars. I then continued on my ride and did a further 30km's before arriving home. But same thing, still the pins and needles. And also was abit sore between the shoulder blades. Not sure if this was because this is only my second time on a road bike, or because of the change in position by rotating the stem.
But I will say that before the stem was rotated I was feeling a little sore in the lower back. But after the stem was rotated that seemed alot better. Maybe I will try moving the saddle back a little and try again tommorow.

[sogood]

Sore back would be attributable to your inexperience in this position. Continuing pins and needles could also be modified by how you hold the bar. Try not put your full weight on the base of your wrist/lower part of the palm. Change the angle of your wrist in the grip and it'll take the pressure off the ulnar nerve... Source of your pins and needles.

[hh445f]

You can also try moving the saddle back on the rails a bit.

Thankyou all for the help so far. Today I moved the saddle back 10mm and wow what a differance. The numness was alot less. I might try another 5mm tomorrow. This may well solve my problem. That and getting used to the position on a roadie. Cheers all

[wombatK]

You can also try moving the saddle back on the rails a bit.

Thankyou all for the help so far. Today I moved the saddle back 10mm and wow what a differance. The numness was alot less. I might try another 5mm tomorrow. This may well solve my problem. That and getting used to the position on a roadie. Cheers all

Seems like you're getting close to fixing it. Also check that your saddle isn't "nose down" - that'll tend to get you sliding forward towards the handlebars.

Cheers

[twizzle]

You can also try moving the saddle back on the rails a bit.

Thankyou all for the help so far. Today I moved the saddle back 10mm and wow what a differance. The numness was alot less. I might try another 5mm tomorrow. This may well solve my problem. That and getting used to the position on a roadie. Cheers all

Have you done the 'hands off the bar' test yet (you can do this out on the road, you don't need a trainer)? If not, why not?

And if you moving the saddle back, is the stem still the correct length or do you need a shorter stem?

[sogood]

Thankyou all for the help so far. Today I moved the saddle back 10mm and wow what a differance. The numness was alot less. I might try another 5mm tomorrow. This may well solve my problem. That and getting used to the position on a roadie.

Sounds like the whole fitting sequence has been reversed.

For proper fit, one should adjust the saddle position independent of one's bar position. Once set, then the bar should be appropriately matched to it. Moving the saddle because there's too much weight at the hand grip is reversing the process.

[hh445f]

Twizzle, I'll try the hands off the bars on my next ride. I did find though that with the saddle back that little bit the bike felt more balanced to me, and I felt more confident and more in control at higher speeds. I have marked the saddle rail, so if need be I can go back to the original position.

[hh445f]

Sogood, my stem has been turned over. But like you say maybe I should turn it back to it's original position to see how it feels with the saddle moved back.

[sogood]

Sogood, my stem has been turned over. But like you say maybe I should turn it back to it's original position to see how it feels with the saddle moved back.

I don't think that's right. Given your specific issue, you should get someone knowledgeable to have a look at your positioning on the bike. Check that your saddle is in the correct position before making adjustments to the bar position. A poorly positioned saddle may put you into more bother than just pins and needles.

[Parrott]

I set my bicycles up without any real fitting advice. Just go out and ride with an allen key and adjust the fore and aft seat position and height until you are comfortable. If you then feel stretched out get a shorter stem if you feel cramped get a longer one. That's all I did, it just takes a while and evolves anyway as your fitness, strength and flexibilty improves. You may need to muck about with cleat position also if you end up getting sore knees. If you just want to be more comfortable then muck around til you are. If you still can't resolve it, I reckon you will, then go and seek out a bike fitter.

Edit: read that again today for some reason and it didn't work had longer and shorter stem round the wrong way.

[hh445f]

I set my bicycles up without any real fitting advice. Just go out and ride with an allen key and adjust the fore and aft seat position and height until you are comfortable. If you then feel stretched out get a longer stem if you feel cramped get a shorter one. That's all I did, it just takes a while and evolves anyway as your fitness, strength and flexibilty improves. You may need to muck about with cleat position also if you end up getting sore knees. If you just want to be more comfortable then muck around til you are. If you still can't resolve it, I reckon you will, then go and seek out a bike fitter.

Thanks Parrot. Basically that is what I did today. I think I have nearly got it right. Today I moved the saddle back 5mm and it felt better again. When I got home I droped the height 5mm, so next time I will try this posi. Cheers guys. Gotta love those allen keys on the multi tool

[hartleymartin]

Another possibility is that your bars are either too narrow or too wide.

[hh445f]

Another possibility is that your bars are either too narrow or too wide.

Hi Hartleymartin, Is this something that happened to you or someone you know. No one has mentioned bar width yet on this thread.

[Livetoride]

I had the pins and needles for a while and then someone told me some time ago to move my grip around from time to time, so over the hoods, then the main bar, then stand up. Always move your grip, for me any way, this helped and solved that issue.

[casual_cyclist]

Setup isn't right, you've got too much weight on your hands.

Agreed. My hand pain was so bad I nearly quit cycling . I moved my seat back and my hand pain/numbness/pins and needles disappeared completely. It was lucky too because that was weeks before a 300km ride. Good news is on the 300km ride I had zero pain etc.

[scotto]

double bar tape and gel gloves for a quick solution.
raise the bar maybe ( flip stem), sort out your riding position in the long term

[Baalzamon]

Thread revival

Has anyone heard of fluid in the palm causing numbness? I can flex my hand back, put pressure on my palm and I get a lump appearing on my wrist which puts pressure on my carpal tunnel and
Only found this out on friday with a complimentary assessment from PIHC. They did a little bit of work(flexed and massaged my hand) and on a 40km ride I had no numbness appearing in my left hand which normally occurs around 10km and my right hand started to get a little bit of it about 32km into a 40km ride which was much later than usual.

[dv]

More thread revival. Did not realise they went this long.

Just something to add into the fray.....Blood sugar and cholesterol.....! I never knew these could be an issue if you are pretty fit......(no ...really.....!)

A few years back I was suffering from severe pins and needles in my hands - usually on the bike, but sometimes when I slept on them and had experts tell me I had carpal tunnel syndrome and needed pressure relief surgery. Around then I had some blood tests for a general check up and my sugar and cholesterol No.s weren't great - even though I was certainly not overweight or unfit. A radical change in diet and in a couple of months all the pins and needles went. Hell of a lot better idea than surgery - which would not have fixed the problem anyway!!! And I did not have to alter my bike set up either - which is good as I'm happy with it!

Cheers all.........

[Kururunfa]

Getting it in left hand only, nothing seems to help, tried with and without gloves, tried different gloves.
Only thing is to take hand of handle bar for some rest